September 2024

  An hour before Lethe’s defeat, in front of Sayaka’s apartment.

  ***

  Mana gave her older self a few side glances as they stood outside of the doctor’s apartment. Sayaka was leaning against the railing of the loggia and looked out at the city, giving Mana some privacy with herself.

  “So, uh…” Mana started.

  “If you want to ask me what happened to Marisa…” older Mana sighed, taking off her hat and running a hand through her hair.

  “It’s complicated. And I can’t tell you, either way.”

  Mana’s eyes narrowed, and she stepped closer to the cat-eared witch, pushing a finger into her sternum.

  “Don’t give me that! You know that I did all of this to try and save Marisa and Arisu both! You can’t just leave me in the dark like this!” her voice almost cracked as she spoke the last few words, and her older self grimaced.

  “I can’t. Everything that happened today is the result of you struggling against the unknown.”

  “That’s stupid! Just break the cycle and tell me!”

  “And then what, younger me?” the older one furrowed her brow, turning towards Mana with a pained expression.

  “I tell you ‘Marisa survived and will return with me’, or ‘I had to kill Marisa’. What will you do? If everything’s alright, you might relax too much and miss an important chance in the future! If I tell you that this ends with me killing Marisa, will you then go and abandon Arisu? I know we had those thoughts. To just let Marisa do as she wishes and live happily ever after in a timeline in which Arisu doesn’t exist.”

  Tears welled up in older Mana’s eyes as she grabbed her younger self by the shoulders.

  “But we aren’t that kind of person. So, please. Be patient, endure this year, and then face your future with everything you’ve got!”

  Mana bit her lower lip, looking her older self in the eyes. Her vision grew cloudy from accumulating tears before she looked to the side, letting her shoulders hang.

  “Alright… but if you put me up to all of this waiting, only for the outcome to break my heart… I’ll find you in the future and punch you!”

  “It’s a deal,” older Mana said with a smile, reaching out to pat her younger self on the head.

  “One more thing…” Mana quietly added.

  Older Mana smiled and simply waited for Mana to speak, though it was obvious that she knew what her younger self wanted to ask.

  “Was Hitoishi completely dependent on us to survive today?”

  “No,” the older one responded, looking towards Sayaka. The doctor tilted her head as she noticed that she was being looked at.

  “What would you have done if Arisu didn’t give Hitoishi any blood, or without the Stasis spell?”

  “Eh? Well, the hospital is a short sprint away. After bandaging her, I could have gotten her there in my car and gotten her hooked up to some blood reserves. It would have probably taken longer than it did with you stopping the bleeding, considering the blood loss.”

  Older Mana nodded and turned towards the younger one. “See?”

  “Then what was this all about? We weren’t needed here, so why did we come?”

  Older Mana responded with a gentle smile at her younger self’s question.

  “It’s kind of nice, don’t you think? That she gets to spend some time with her future daughter.”

  The day after Lethe’s defeat.

  ***

  Mana didn’t have a very restful night. She was lying in her bed, staring at the ceiling of her room. She still had the letter from Doppelg?nger, which she held in her hand, too afraid to open it. This was the last evidence of Marisa and Doppelg?nger as they were before Mana had them locked away in one of Thirram’s containment cells and altered their memories, having them lead an ordinary life as a middle school girl, just like Mana should have, if she never encountered the library.

  “One year…” she mumbled and got up. She opened her phone, scrolling ahead on her calendar and sighed as she saw all the days that would pass her by. A whole desert of ordinariness. She had no desire to go and explore strange new worlds on her own, at least not right now, and the listless feeling nagged her.

  She paced up and down her bedroom, and frustration spread in her heart. She helped Arisu, Hitoishi, all of them! They got their happy endings now, while Mana was stripped of the one girl she cared about more than anything else, and she, the one who helped them all, was supposed to endure this for a year? Tears streamed down her face, and she wanted to hit the wall next to her, but her fist hit something soft instead. It was a hand, catching Mana’s punch in an open palm. As Mana turned around, her eyes went wide as she saw who it was who stood there right next to her. Arisu wrapped both her hands around Mana’s fist and held it close to her heart.

  “…what are you doing here?” Mana asked with her head turned away in embarrassment.

  She saw me crying and throwing a tantrum… I want to go and vanish in a hole somewhere!

  Arisu looked at the hand between her own two and raised it to her lips, placing a little kiss on it.

  “I knew that you would be hurting inside. We locked away the one girl you loved, after all. And I can’t bear to see my…” Arisu stopped for a moment and smiled. “…I can’t bear to see you suffer alone.”

  “And the older me?” Mana raised a brow.

  “She doesn’t know that I’m here!” Arisu winked at her. Or maybe she blinked. It was hard to tell when the girl wore an eyepatch the entire time.

  “She knows,” Mana replied dryly, and she could watch on Arisu’s face how the little gears in her head clicked into place.

  “…oh. Right! Of course she would know, if… wait a minute, is that why she left the tome out before she destroyed it? So I could copy it? For this?”

  “I’m destroying the time travel tome?!” Mana asked with some surprise.

  “Of course you do! Time travel is more trouble than it is worth, at least that’s what you said!”

  Mana thought back to her thirty-six-year-old self. She was going to time travel again, much further in the future. But if she destroyed the spellbook to achieve that, how would she do it? Did she find another tome allowing for time travel? No, even with there being an infinite number of copies of said tome in the library, its much vaster infinity, filled with nothing but nonsense, would make that an impossible coincidence. She would never find one copy of each of the possible spell books in the library, even though she found a good breadcrumb trail of indices and spellbooks which knew where to find an index pointing at their location. And even lower than that was the chance that she would find the same spellbook twice.

  “…that doesn’t make sense,” she whispered to herself, but Arisu grabbed her wrist.

  “Anyway, my copy ability lasts for a week. And I will visit you every single evening! That means, over the next year I will visit you seven times! Once every two months, until I’m born! And we will use those days to go on dates!”

  Mana looked at Arisu with a dumbfounded expression.

  “Huh?”

  Mana sat on the bench of a dimly lit karaoke room and watched Arisu sing and even perform a little dance in front of the screen. She picked the opening of a well-known anime centered around a group of otaku and scientists messing with time travel. And gel bananas.

  A little on the nose.

  Mana sipped from her drink and kept watching this strange girl from the future as she lampshaded her very nature in song and dance.

  “Hey. Want to sing a duet?” Arisu asked with a wide grin, and Mana raised an eyebrow.

  “…what kind?”

  “A lovey-dovey song between two lovers.”

  “No thanks.”

  “Boo, you’re no fun!” Arisu complained, puffing up her cheeks. Mana had to chuckle at the sight and admit that this girl was pretty adorable.

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  “Now, now. I’ll sing lovey-dovey duets with you if, and only if we actually become a couple. Let’s go with a normal duet for now, alright?”

  “Mh… alright,” Arisu relented, handing Mana a microphone as she stood up and joined her in front of the screen. Mana scrolled through the list of songs on display and stopped for a moment.

  “…there’s… not a long list of duets that aren’t about love, huh?”

  Arisu let out a little giggle, patting Mana’s back.

  “Love songs are very popular for a reason! People love… er… being in love.”

  Mana raised her brows and gave Arisu a long, disapproving look after her fumbled word play, and was rewarded with the girl sticking her tongue out at her.

  “Let’s go with this one: Futarigoto.” Mana suggested and Arisu nodded.

  It was still vaguely about love and mutual understanding, and as far as Mana remembered, it belonged to an anime that aired a few years ago, in which an emotionally stunted woman learned the meaning of love while mourning the death of the only man who ever loved her. Her hair style also looked very similar to Nicola’s, but that was beside the point.

  The two girls were relatively unfamiliar with the song and stumbled over the lyrics a few times. They ended up singing the same song together at least five times, doing a little better each time, and Mana’s racing mind was finally distracted from her worries.

  ***

  They followed up by going into a photo booth. They took photos in various poses, and Arisu showed a wide grin on all of them, no matter what they did. Hugging Mana from behind, hugging her from the side… thinking back on it, there was a lot of hugging happening, and Mana had trouble finding a photo that didn’t show her getting her cheek squished by Arisu’s. She shot her suspicious glances, while Arisu only responded with an innocent little smile.

  “…I feel like you’re already handling me as if we were a couple.”

  “Oh, really?” an annoying, angelic expression showed up on Arisu’s face.

  “You’re really a big troublemaker.” Mana said with a little sigh, but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Well, then let’s get on the Big O. You know, the place where couples go to take a ride together.”

  Mana enjoyed witnessing the effects of the critical hit she just landed as Arisu turned a few shades redder. Nonetheless, she followed Mana, and they took the train northwards to the Tokyo Dome and the little amusement park next to it. She was supposed to go on a date with Marisa here a few days ago, and now she would be going on a date with Arisu instead. It stung a little, but she kept her head clear and her mind focused. Arisu was doing this for her sake, she realized, going on little dates with Mana, so the loneliness and despair at her situation wouldn’t devour her.

  They entered the rollercoaster first and screamed both in excitement as it rushed through the Big O itself and the hole in the nearby building, then it was time for a ride on the hollow Ferris wheel itself.

  They both sat on opposite sides of the capsule, and as it started to move, they both blushed as they fully understood the ‘situation’ they both put themselves into.

  Mana stared at the ground for now, unsure what to talk about, but Arisu took the initiative as she changed seats, sitting right next to Mana.

  “Hey… you should read the letter.”

  Mana’s hands trembled a little as she looked at the envelope in her hands. Arisu placed a hand on hers in a calming manner and Mana gave her a grateful nod before she pulled the letter out. As expected, there were just scribbles reading ‘Die, die! Arisu’s mother, die die die die die die die!!!‘ on the pages, and Mana furrowed her brow as she looked at Arisu, who grabbed the sheet of paper and turned it around. Legible handwriting was on that side, forming a proper letter.

  ***

  ‘Dear Mana,

  ‘I hope that you can somehow get this letter. Doppelg?nger is resting right now, recharging after it has been suppressed for so long, so I’m using the opportunity to write on the fake letter she wrote for Hitoishi.’

  ‘I messed up. I saw a vision of my death and doubted you. I doubted you for long enough that my hold on Doppelg?nger weakened, and now that it’s out of the box, I can’t seal it away again. I’m so sorry.

  ‘But here’s the thing about that vision: All I saw was the ocean in front of me. I don’t know if I died from a wound, or of old age… which means that there is hope. I believe from the bottom of my heart that you can make it work. That you can save both Arisu and me, and that we three can live a happy life together.

  ‘I know that you will do your best to make sure that all of this will happen, so please take care of yourself in the meantime! Please be happy!

  ‘I love you.

  ‘-Marisa’

  ***

  Mana put the letter down and sniffled. Tears dropped down on the paper and threatened to smudge the ink before she folded it back up and put it away. Arisu leaned in, dabbing the tears out of Mana’s face with a handkerchief while Mana spoke.

  “There’s hope, Arisu… I can… I can try to save her.”

  Arisu nodded and smiled at Mana, squeezing her hand in her own.

  “You and her both… I can… save you both.”

  Mana’s train of thought was interrupted. She felt something soft press against her lips, and before she even consciously realized it, she returned Arisu’s kiss.

  ***

  “That was my first, you know? I kissed you before I kissed your future self.” Arisu said with a little smile. She was cuddling up to Mana’s side after the two went into a manga café, enjoying the semi-privacy of the cabin containing only a large seat and a computer. They were watching a movie on the screen to calm Mana’s racing thoughts after the impulsive kiss.

  “…did I cheat on her?” she asked quietly.

  “No. The letter said she wants the three of us to be together. And I think it’s a nice idea, too.”

  “Mhh,” Mana replied, not entirely convinced, but she didn’t complain, either.

  “I’m kind of taking after my moms here,” Arisu giggled and gave Mana another kiss, this time on the cheek.

  “Are you?”

  “I told you, I have five… four of them biologically.”

  “You’re probably still not going to tell me how that works, huh?” Mana asked with a raised brow.

  “Nope! The risk is too high that you’re going to tell them, even if just accidentally, and that could change the future.”

  “I guess…” Mana said with a little sigh, looking ahead. “…it feels nice, spending time with you. And now I don’t know what I’m going to do in the two months until I see you again.”

  “Hmm…” Arisu looked at her, a finger on her lips.

  “You probably don’t want to just travel around other worlds on your own, hm?”

  “No.”

  “Then maybe… find some closure for your soul,” Arisu suggested. Mana blinked her way, confused at first, but then she understood, bit by bit. Originally, a sense of responsibility towards the Aranon drove her to continue her world travels, even before she enjoyed those excursions for their own sake as dates with Marisa. What if she set herself another goal? This time to help Bonnie find peace, who was still watching over her, from behind her own eyes, and sometimes influenced her thoughts and desires.

  “…I’m not sure how I should do that, but it gives me something to think about. Thank you.”

  ***

  After they finished their movie, it was already time to say farewell again. They went back to Mana’s place and into her room, where Arisu made her preparations to open the gate to the world of white sand. Mana watched her with some interest as Arisu opened the portal.

  “So, if that’s just another world, couldn’t you just learn the coordinates, Portal? She casually asked her spellbook companion, who responded with a sigh.

  “No. Worlds like these are strange anomalies, seemingly purpose-created by someone or something to allow for time travel. Every other world has a beginning and an end, and they move forwards or backwards like that, but this one? It feels like if it were to reach its end it would just loop right back towards its beginning. It’s giving me the shivers, and I can’t focus on opening a passage to it.”

  “It was made by my great-great-grand uncle!” Arisu declared with a wide grin, and Mana only raised a brow.

  “…right, I guess you are a demigod of sorts,” she said with a sigh before she prodded further. “What’s his name?”

  Arisu poked out her tongue and pulled her eyelid down with a finger. “Not telling! Read some mythology!”

  Mana chuckled and dismissed her with a casual wave of her hand. “I won’t. Come on, get going, miss time traveler.”

  Arisu nodded and hopped through the portal, taking a deep breath. Mana watched her, waiting for the ring to disappear and mark the beginning of her two months of trying to find purpose for herself. Arisu, however, had one more thing in mind, it appeared. She faced Mana, furrowed her brow and even blushed a little, but then she ran to the portal, grabbed its edges and poked her head through. She started shouting.

  “Just for your information! Yes, I like small breasts! I think yours are very cute and suit you well! Also, also, I think the way you wear witch robes when you go on adventures is really cool, and the way you’re acting all confident even when you’re in over your head? That’s amazing, I love it! The way you look when you’re casting magic makes my heart race! In my future you’re acting like a tsundere and now I know why, because you actually love me, and I love you, but when we meet after my birth, I don’t know about that yet so it’s really awkward for you! I am your future wife! That’s not something I know for sure, but something that I just decided! Alright, I’m off to get my second kiss from you! Love you, bye!”

  The portal vanished with Arisu quickly having closed it to save herself the embarrassment of seeing Mana’s utterly befuddled reaction to her outburst. The blue-haired witch stood in silence in her room for a few minutes, then she laughed. She laughed while a small trickle of tears ran down her face as the sudden confession caused all sorts of emotions to mix in her heart.

  “…do a confession like that before you kiss me, idiot…!”

  Period of Calm Seas, 1477 in the Era of Plunder

  ***

  Mana entered the little hideout Marisa created for them some time ago. While she was gone, Mana would make sure that it remained standing while also using it as a getaway to gather her thoughts.

  She put a laptop she brought with her down on the table, as well as a few light novels which she bought recently. This was as good a place as any to read, spend some free time and think about how she would go about giving Bonnie some peace. The poor woman died so young and never saw her dream realized, so maybe Mana should continue her adventure in some form?

  Mana stepped towards the beach and looked out at the calm seas. Somewhere out there, far away, was a place where the barriers between dimensions were exceedingly thin and things from Mana’s and other worlds poured through, while at the same time causing the disappearance of most of the people going there. It sounded a little like this world’s Bermuda Triangle.

  “…hm, can I travel there with portals and have a look around?” she mused, and to her surprise, her own thoughts answered her.

  That would defeat the purpose of a pirate adventure.

  “True enough,” she admitted and ruffled her hair as she kept looking at the ocean in front of her.

  “How would a girl like me get a ship and a crew? Maybe I could try to get a monster summoning tome and have a crew made up of them. Wouldn’t that be a crazy pirate ship?” Mana chuckled, putting her hands on her hips as she looked at the endless blue expanse.

  “…yeah, but how do I balance school and everything else with a months-long voyage? Just going home and returning to the ship after feels… wrong, somehow.”

  Mana shook her head and went back inside to sit down at her table. She looked at the books she brought with her and decided that she should distract herself for a few moments at least. Reding would help her mind to calm down and maybe come up with a better idea.

  It was ‘The Starfaring Maiden, Volume 2’, which only just released. Mana opened the book and read the first chapter. The story of Felicia played out in her mind, as she finds a woman stranded in space, who had been stuck ten years in a cryo pod, and how she agrees to let her accompany her on her travels. Mana was immediately absorbed in the story. Hours later she had already reached the end of the book, reading the afterword. The author, Hifumi Ebiko, wrote about her love for writing and yuri in almost too much detail and described how she started her journey as a simple fanfiction writer who got scouted by an editor.

  She spent no less than five sentences thanking said editor for everything. Mana almost missed a crucial detail as she wanted to skip ahead a little, but a name caught her attention and she read it regardless.

  “Thank you to my truly wonderful editor, Seika Hitoishi. I would have never gotten this opportunity without you,” Mana read aloud and stared ahead after recognizing the name.

  Suddenly, she had an idea.

  ***

  Mana clacked away on the notebook she brought along. Text appeared on her screen, originally intended to house some notes about how she would travel around so her past life could find some peace within her soul. But now, it was filled with fiction, partially based on the very real life of a pirate who was now an inseparable part of the young witch.

  The title of said piece of fiction read ‘A Lifetime of Adventure at Sea’.

  However, after some consideration, I decided to make her her own protagonist-level character, with a vastly different system of magic tomes. I heavily lifted from the Library of Babel's concept of infinite copies of every book ever written amidst innavigable chaos, and argued that it would be possible to create magic books with such a library as well.

  I'm really happy with how Mana ended up turning out, either way!

  It was fun to write her story, but it dug quite a bit into the time I had to write Magical Girl Overtime itself! I originally started with two novels' worth of a head start to my releases, and now I'm down to one. With Mana now being a part of the main story, however, I'm certain I can build that headstart again!